...the imagery of an ambulance crew, emerging from a cloud of sirens, sounds, and car horns

The crucial North Russian label Full of Nothing made a modest announcement last month. "We've a new family member! We've been joined by the Nizhny Novgorod producer RNBWS, who's now based in Moscow. Otherwise known as Maksim Nikolaev, RNBWS makes exciting bass, break-techno, and experimental club music. Expect a debut release in September!"

Some of that promise material - as September rolled around - would become the above set for Moscow's 20FT Radio, together with a live performance for Moscow Music Week. Journalists looked for ways to describe the newcomer. One Russian blogger declared that although Nikolaev had moved to the Russian capital, his "heart resided somewhere on the outskirts of Bristol."

Those presumed associations with English melancholy have actually lingered within RNBWS' catalog for some time. By way of example, the recent "Apnoea" EP was described by Nikolaev as "an investigation into the darker elements of human emotion. The beats here may be broken, but they're still insistent. These tracks could be considered an outsider's view of club music from Foggy Albion. At least I borrowed its aggression, while maintaining the melodies that I cherish."

Elsewhere Nikolaev speaks about anguish in broader terms, using the kind of melancholy, contemplative language long associated with Full of Nothing. "Many people have [of course] felt a sense of loss or [at least] distance. Many have sensed the destruction of a daily routine - as an inevitable consequence of that loss. It's a feeling of grief, as if if the earth is pulled out from under your feet. Your heart yearns to be rebooted. My music captures the imagery of an ambulance crew, emerging from a cloud of sirens, sounds, and car horns. I will occasionally abandon the mixing of a track half way, with some of the instruments left in imprecise patterns. A synth line might, let's say, get deliberately distorted. I want to create an air of general discomfort on hearing these sounds... while keeping the melody."

Melody, melancholy, and a Bristolian air of civic sadness. Such are the essential elements in RNBWS' catalog, not to mention the entire worldview of Full of Nothing in Petrozavodsk.